An electric motor used as a source for driving an electric vehicle or the like normally has a stator core in the form of a ring having a plurality of radially inwardly projecting teeth circumferentially with fixed intervals. The stator core has each tooth with a coil wound thereon. Such stator is fabricated by previously winding a coil in accordance with each tooth's geometry to provide a unit of coil and fitting each unit of coil on a tooth to facilitate assembling the stator. This, however, requires that after each unit of coil is fit on a tooth, predetermined coils be electrically connected together, and the operation connecting them together is cumbersome. This problem is resolved, for example as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2001-103700.
Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2001-103700 discloses a stator for an electric motor, that includes a stator core in the form of a ring having a plurality of inwardly projecting teeth circumferentially and equally spaced, coil units each fit on a tooth of the stator core and formed of a conductor previously wound to have each coil such that its starting end of winding and its finishing end of winding extend radially outward along an end surface of the stator core, cylindrical terminal members provided radially outer than the stator core and receiving each coil's starting and finishing ends, respectively, of winding when each coil unit is fit on a tooth, and a bus bar connecting the terminal members together.
Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2001-103700 discloses that when the coil units are fit on the teeth of the stator core, each coil's starting and finishing ends of winding are inserted in the cylindrical terminal members, respectively. This can facilitate an operation connecting the coil to the terminal members (i.e., coils together).
In the stator disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2001-103700 when a coil unit is fit the coil has an end inserted in a terminal member, and to do so, the coil has the end bent generally perpendicularly toward the terminal member. One such method of bending a coil is to form a tool in accordance with a required angle for plastic deformation, insert the tool between the coil's main body and the coil's end, and press the coil's end against the tool. If there is a short distance between the coil's main body and a position at which the coil's end is bent, however, a sufficient space cannot be ensured for the tool, and for some material, diameter, cross section and the like of the coil, the coil's end may not be bent to have a required angle. However, Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2001-103700 does not disclose any technique for resolving such a problem.